The Amazing Ling Changpu
by originmsd
Summary: Imagine feeling all alone and then finding out about a hidden talent you have. Then imagine being forced to use that talent when you're not ready. Now imagine the people around you may depend on it. Finally, write a smart-alecky journal about it!
1. The Chick Falls out of the Nest

Chapter 1: The Chick Falls out of the Nest

Yep. It was just another afternoon on the farm. I was just minding my own business, thinking about how much easier having a husband would make my life. Oh sure getting laid once in a while would be nice but what I'd really like is someone to help me plow! I am sick and tired of this bullsh**, not including that which I use to fertilize. By the way, the neighbors gave me a new plough to work with for my birthday, and it's just as sh**y as my old one. And besides that I don't have four arms! They're a bunch of morons. But anyways, I was getting ready to throw this piece of debris against a cherry tree when I heard screaming. I turn around, and look! It's a bunch of soldiers and mages showing off. I hated when they came around here to train. Bunch of show off. They were casting their spells and swinging their swords and acting all macho and… bleeding and calling for back-up and… Oh no.

"Go back inside! Go away! Run!" This female mage was yelling at me, but all I could pay attention to was some kind of giant flea was beating the living goo (literally) out of the blademasters in the front line. Then there were these huge booming sounds like lion's roars that seemed to come from all directions. I had heard about soldiers being able to release sonic booms to stun nearby targets, and almost everyone was on overdrive. I'm guessing it took about 30 seconds for me to somehow end up in the middle of a huge battle, and another 10 seconds to realize it. Dizziness, dude!

It was kind of cool though. There were flashing lights as everyone used their skills. Fireballs were flying everywhere, flashing swords were crashing down and creating earthquakes, and there were lots of cool monsters. I mean there were giant centipedes, walking golems, and the occasional zombie! It would have been great except the appearance of blood was nauseating and well… it's kind of hard to watch someone's limbs get ripped out from their sockets without wanting to cry a little. I got the feeling we were losing.

"Han! Han I'm coming!" That panicky wizard had to go rescue her blademaster boyfriend from being castrated by wolves, and she dropped what looked like a scepter. My guess is that it was her back-up, since she was wielding some big green-glowing… thing. I'm a farm girl so what the hell do I know? I picked it up, and had no idea what to do with it. So I looked at the wizard. She muttered a few words and held her hand up. Energy seemed to flow from the big green-glowing sword (at least I think it was a sword) she was holding into her hand. A trigram symbolizing fire appeared on the back of her hand, and suddenly her whole hand caught fire. She thrust it at the wolf that was gonna turn her boyfriend into dog food and a huge fireball went flying from her hand towards the wolf! I stood there looking like an idiot and watched the wolf get knocked back like 10 meters and then just collapse, dead, its fur totally singed. Cool! My turn!

"Ok, so I take the scepter, let the power flow through me, and fire!" Yes I said this to myself. I sought a suitable target (not the happy couple who were either treating each other's wounds or groping each other, as much as I hate public displays of affection) and settled on the big flea everyone was b*tching about. So I held up the scepter, held up my hand, and just because fate likes me so much… nothing happened. "Ok, ok. She was muttering some magic words… Um, abra kadabra!" Nothing. "Fireball jutsu!" Nope. "Um, um, ka meh, ha meh, HA!" No response. "By the power of grey skull!" Still nothing. "Avada kedavra?" I could swear I heard the scepter laughing at me. Oh wait, that was the giant Minotaur thing that was about to chop my head off with a sword from behind. I turn around and look! A giant Minotaur that wants to chop my head off! I just love my life! Don't you?

"Oh my god work you piece of sh**! Do something!" I was of course whacking the ground with the scepter in the hopes that maybe the battery was loose, and then the Minotaur decided just to end it and take a swing at me. "Ok! I think it's time for plan B." With an all mighty swing I took the scepter and bashed it into the Minotaur's crotch. He dropped the sword, and fell to the ground. "Well, that works too." And with that little victory I decided to ditch the scepter and look for something a little less useless.

There were actually a lot of weapons all over the place. There were pikes, swords, scepters, and a wide array of other shiny pointy things. It took a lot of dodging to get there though. Ever see a giant exploding armadillo before? Yah it was my first time too. But finally I settled on a huge green-glowing scythe. It weighed a ton, but it was shiny and pointy. That was the only criteria I could work with under pressure. And then I ran towards the flea.

This giant mo' fo' had beaten almost everything in its path. Seriously, people were just ignoring it. Ok, so it was just me and the flea. Wow, I am such a dumbass. But hey, I was working in the middle of a field minding my own business on my cr*p-tastic farm, only to get interrupted by a battle which happened to walk on to my property. So yah, I might as well make my day even more interesting! … … Oh god I'm going to die... So anyways I charged right into the flea's torso with the tip of the spear. Naturally a frontal charge on a monster 20 times your size is likely to fail. It's not just a plot device to a story. It's physics. So of course the flea stood up on its hairy hind legs to evade the tip and then used it claws (which I didn't know fleas had) to send me flying back a few meters. "Ow." Luckily my trusty pointy thing was intact. The fact that it had been knocked out of my had and was now far away from me was a bit of a let-down however. I got up and ran over to it, and big bloodsucking ugly came charging towards me. I grabbed the pointy thingy just in time and wacked its face. Imagine my surprise when flames burst from the blade and enveloped the giant flea's head. That was interesting.

The creature began to panic and tried to get the fire out of its eyes. "Ok big ugly, time to die!" I gave it everything I had and tried to chop off one of its legs. This caused a blast of water and wind to come out of the edge, and not only did it blast off the bug's leg, but it envelop the whole creature, slowing it down. I couldn't believe this pointy thingy was actually doing something. And it felt so natural too. I backed off and got the idea to swing it around and then charge into the monster like any good action hero who in reality has no idea what they're doing. That's when I sensed an energy build up in the blade. Ok, freakiness. I made a thrusting motion and something like lightning bolted from the tip of the blade and pierced the flea's left eye. The bolt must have flown at least 7 meters. This thing was full of surprises. I decided it was time to end the battle. I ran towards the disabled flea and just wacked it with all the strength I could muster. I felt exhilarated, alive, and oh so very sexy. I brought down the blade onto the creature's head, remembered a blinding light, and then I blacked out.


	2. Encounter with a Badger

Chapter 2: Encounter with a Badger

When I came to the battle was over. I guess we won since I was surrounded by blademasters and wizards. One of them, a big burly guy with a mustache and beard that even Santa Claus would envy helped me up. Everyone else looked at me like I was some kind of psycho. I got worried and turned around. There was the giant flea. It was dead. In fact its body was full of holes. "Ha ha, I guess I messed up and you guys had to finish it off, eh?"

Ok, perhaps now is the time to present some background info on just who I am exactly. My name is Ling Changpu. I'm not a warrior. I'm a 19 year old farm girl with an athletic build, black hair, decent skin but nothing an Elder's daughter would envy, and average height. In other words, I'm pretty boring. Oh, did I mention both my parents were drunkards and that when they died they pretty much left me this single acre plot of land? Yep. They weren't legendary warriors. They weren't special. They were ghetto trash. That's ok. I don't care. My neighbors were supportive of course. Unfortunately I still turned out to be a bit of a psychopath… as you can all plainly see.

As you can also see, I suffer from a distinct deficit of self-esteem; so you can imagine my surprise when the St. Nicholas wannabe said, "No, you killed it."

"Eh?" I picked up the overgrown silver toothpick that had saved my life. I didn't realize how pretty it was. Other than the green glow, there was a teal geometric design on the blade that shimmered whenever I touched it. It was warm. It was almost like it was greeting me… Ew, icky anime moment! But yah, it was a beautiful weapon.

"It's called a flame scythe. It's a rare and powerful weapon. My name is General Tzu. What's yours?" Ok, the bearded dude is talking to me. What do I do? Umm, answer back? "I'm Ling Changpu. I'm… kind of a farmer." "Ah… interesting land." He was of course referring to my crap-tacular farm, which thanks to the exploding armadillos, was now full of craters and barren. "Tell me, how did you obtain that blade?"

So I went on to explain that I found it, and the owner, assuming he was alive, would want it back; then he explained that no one in his division possessed a flame scythe. In fact, the only green glowing weapon anyone had belonged to that wizard I had seen earlier. She was actually one of his high ranking Lieutenants, and one of the most experienced warriors in his division. Basically, my flame scythe came out of nowhere. Creepy…

"You demonstrated mastery of several powerful techniques. Do you remember the last attack you used?" Err… "Err… I blacked out." "The attack was called Glacial Spike. When you brought your scythe down on the creature's shoulder, spikes of energy erupted from the ground and impaled the beast. These spikes look like ice, hence the name Glacial Spike. It is a powerful high level skill that few people know. You also used Farstrike and Ocean's Edge, and your weapon activated its special power, blinding the opponent with flames and preventing it from seeing your strikes, hence it could not dodge them."

Amazingly he let me keep the weapon. I couldn't believe what was going on. I just happened to find a high level weapon on the ground, and I just happened to know how to use it? Bullsh**! There was no way! That evening I explored the camp that General Tzu had set up (on what was left of my farm, which was very little thanks to those exploding armadillos) and asked around for the real owner. Most people looked rather afraid of me. Dude, I am not intimidating. I'm not even what you're call a hot Asian chick! I look like a female Asian version of Elijah Wood! (No offense but, once a hobbit, always a hobbit.) Oh my gosh! I look like a hobbit! Sadness! Oh well. At least I'm adorably huggable. But anyways, it turns out the creature's name that I single-handedly killed was called Thromh the mighty. According to legend it resurrects itself every few years inside a cave known as Firecrag Grotto somewhere in the North. No one dares to venture in there because it's so dangerous. Many warriors have been sent there to fight the creature whenever signs foretold its return to destroy Etherblade. Only a handful returned. And no peasant 19 year old b*tch has ever defeated it solo. What I did was considered impossible. Geez, no wonder they were all afraid of me. I rock!

"Hey… I'll bet I could have beaten that thing! You're nothing special!" Um, huh? "Um…" "You heard me. In fact, I challenge you to a duel right now!" Some kid was challenging me to a duel… Huh?! "Hi, I'm not-" "What's the matter? Are you scared? Come on let's see what you got!" Umm, umm, umm what do I do? "Uh, wait, I've never dueled anyone before. I don't even have any armor!" "Get the woman some armor. And when she's equipped, we shall duel!"

Oh god why me?

By the way, welcome to the world of Pangu. If you're unfamiliar with it, there are four races that occupy it. There are the Winged Elves to the south, the Untamed to the East, the Tideborn to the West in the sea, and us Humans in the North. I'm a human. And my home town is Hidden Heroes Village, just west of Etherblade, the main human settlement in this world. For the last few decades, demonic creatures known as Wraith have invaded the countryside, forcing the different races to become allies with each other. Some people like the change, and there have been all sorts of new trends like interracial marriage, factions containing members of every race, and little babies running around with tales and wings and all sorts of weird crap. There are a few reactionaries who want things to go back to the way they were, but I don't think it's going to happen. We're all starting to realize how similar we all are. The scholars claim that the overall difference in DNA between some races is less than the variation between the most different individuals _within_ our races. I guess that makes sense. Winged Elves do look a lot like us, and the Untamed females also look like us, especially the "deer" phenotype. The male Untamed and the Tideborn are the most distinct, and yet we are still almost similar enough to reproduce with each other. Many scholars are beginning to think we're not even different species. We're in fact different populations of the same species, granted unique abilities by Pan Gu but still genetically equivalent. There are also controversial findings that suggest that the Wraith might also be similar to us in some ways. But research into possibly hybridizing with the Wraith has been banned.

This last battle was just a taste of what's been going on in different parts of the region.


	3. Small but with a Stubborn Beak

Chapter 3: Small but with a Stubborn Beak

"Man this sh** is heavy! How do you guys wear this crap?" That was my reaction to heavy armor, which was of course very heavy. The army tailor said I had a lot of strength, dexterity, and vitality, but despite my IQ of 134, I had no intelligence for magic. So she recommended the heaviest armor I could handle, which was this silver suite engraved with black marks. I tried to explain to her that short farm girls don't wear heavy armor, but it turns out the tailor was a bit of a feminist who tried to encourage me (in a yelling, militaristic sort of way that almost made me cry), which resulted in me knocking her unconscious after she was done fitting me with this tin can. I hated to admit it, but it didn't feel so bad. I also got some rings and jewelry (accessories for the win!), a nice helmet, and of course my flame scythe, the only thing I actually liked out of all the crap. I looked like a trick-or-treater, but I was ready for battle!

The guy who challenged me was named Li Zedong. He was a blademaster and one of those prodigies that was supposed to be destined for greatness, only he was still pretty young. His armor was a bluish green and speckled with decorations, and he used a big axe.

"Ok let's go! Try not to run away!" Those were his words. Mine were something like "Uh buh buh, leh… bleh, OK!" I was panicking and couldn't really utter anything coherent. I just felt like shivering and running away. I figured I'd let the scythe do the talking for me. So I got ready to bring it onto his big *ss head and hoped that would do it. But I was meanwhile essentially just standing there paralyzed. An orange aura began to appear around Li's body and 2 seconds later he was right in front of me! How did he do that? I panicked and just swung my sword overhead and brought it down on him, which caused a blue aura to appear around it and lightning to surge through both my blade and Li's body as it came down. Boom! He looked like he was frozen, his eyes were fish eyes. I got kind of scared and asked him if he was ok. Everyone else was clapping, and I heard someone say "Nice Aeolian Blade!" I was about to take a bow when he regained consciousness and then let out a huge blast of wind from his chest. It took me a split second to realize that something really bad was going to happen, and then it happened. The noise was so loud I had to cover my ears. My body felt weak and I was on my knees. I could just barely hear some aside comment from a spectator: "My Roar of the Pride is even louder". By the time I came to, which couldn't have been more than 5 seconds later, my body was covered in cuts and bruises. I wanted nothing more than to get away, especially when I saw a huge build up of energy in his axe. I jumped back as far as I could, and I was dizzy from seeing myself leap back quite a distance. In fact, it was about 10 meters. I wasn't an Olympic athlete so I don't know how I did it, but I avoid getting crushed by his axe. There was quite a crater where I was standing just a second ago.

My turn! I built up some energy in my sword and swung it around like it was a sling shot, then I pointed it at him. I knew what was going to happen. And sure enough, a big spear of light flew out of the edge and hit him right in the chest. He was knocked down, and I smiled. I was good at this! He got up and looked really frustrated. That's when he decided to try something big. I saw him build up more energy by releasing a blue aura from his body followed by another orange one, then I saw his eyes glow red. I got kind of nervous, but not half as nervous as I was when he disappeared. There was a flash of wind next to me and I realized he must have sped behind me! I turned around just in time to hear him cry out "Heaven's FLAME!" Next thing I know I'm being barraged by what I guess were giant red dragons and white hot flames, adding some new bruises and burns to my not-so-sexy-now physique. Meanwhile those cuts and bruises on me from before suddenly felt twice as bad. But not as bad as what he did next! While I was recovering from that terrific beating he gave me (and by recover I mean lean on my scythe and vomit a little) while trying to stay standing up, I saw him build up more energy from his body and channel it into his mouth. People around me were saying "Well that was fast." and "It's over. She's finished." So I was like, what does that mean? And why do I feel so weak? Then it came, a shining spear, bigger than my Farstrike, jetting out of his mouth. Here's the thing. He didn't aim at my torso. He aimed lower… a lot lower.

There's a common myth that says that only guys feel pain when they get hit below the belt. Allow me to dispel that myth right now. "Ah! Oh! …" It was a good thing I had that heavy armor after all! But I still went down! Seriously, wow! Just wow! That was insane. I thought I had been torn open. Mother of mercy! I was on my knees and my forehead was on the floor. I dropped the flame scythe. I was dizzy. This guy was so mean! I was just able to lift my head up a little and watch him laughing, then charge up another attack in that big axe of his. Oh my gosh I thought I was dead already. I saw him running toward me, but I was in so much pain I couldn't really move. I was panting, hard. I just wanted to get more oxygen in my body in the hopes that my brain would release more adrenaline and dopamine and let me stand up. When he was almost on me I grabbed the scythe and summoned all of my strength (which at this point was lower than President's Bush's approval rating) and thrust the scythe into his chest. No, I didn't kill him, but I discovered a new attack. A huge ball of light formed at the base of the blade, and then punched his chest while making swooshing noise. The whole thing happened so fast I couldn't really understand what happened. But the ball of light sent him flying back really far. He landed quite a distance away from me.

Slowly, very slowly, I stood up. There were tears in my eyes, and the pain had spread to my thighs, making it harder to stay standing. But I was up. And he was down… for a little bit… and then he got up again. And he looked even madder. I so wanted to cry right now. I just wanted to scream. What was I doing? I'm a farm girl! What business did I have killing monsters and dueling soldiers? Why did I have to find this thing? I was so distraught I almost didn't notice Zedong gather more energy using those two auras of his. Just what were those anyway? I looked closely and noticed a change in his neck muscles. They seemed to be glowing blue, then orange. I remembered that when they were orange that first time, my Aeolian blade stunned him, but he wasn't badly hurt. When the aura disappeared, my attacks did more damage… Were those auras just to gather energy? Or were they making him stronger? He saw I couldn't move, so he just kept alternating between auras. It gave me time to observe the auras more closely. The orange one seemed to make his muscles firmer, and the blue one infused them with a blue light, but made his muscles lose their tone. That's when I had a flashback about humans such as me coming in two classes, blademasters and wizards. Wizards use elemental damage, and blademasters deal physical damage. I heard stories about wizards and blademasters dueling each other, and then remembered something about blademasters being "adaptable". I didn't know what that meant, until now…

I got the timing of the two auras and then went for it. I leaped with all my strength towards him and, sure enough, I appeared right by his side just as he had activated the blue aura. I realized this must have increased his resistance to the elements while gathering energy, but it also weakened his resistance to physical force. So then I let out a huge scream, which turned into a shock wave that stopped him from moving. He was paralyzed, just as I was when he did it to me. His muscles were still weakened. I gave an almighty swing and slashed him across the chest. I could see blood trickle through his armor. He was bleeding somehow. I then quickly gathered as much energy as I could from my body and kinda accidentally released auras like his. Unfortunately I messed up the order, going from orange to blue, because I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew it wouldn't matter, because what I was about to do would finish him. The seconds went by in slow motion. 1 second, I used the orange aura. 2 seconds, I used the blue aura. 3 seconds, I started to scream to increase my confidence. 4 seconds, as I tried to lift up my sword I realized how much pain I was still in, but that I didn't care. 5 seconds, and I brought my blade down on him. It didn't go quite how I wanted. It wasn't the ultimate attack. I was still too weak. Instead I accidentally used another Aeolian blade. But the effect was the same as before. Zedong was stunned and couldn't move anymore. His muscles still had the blue aura. I hadn't missed my chance. I felt too weak to use the auras again and realized that for him to use them so many times I must have been staggered with pain for quite some time. But now I felt strong enough.

I swung my blade, and brought it down. I felt myself becoming really weak, and thought back to when I blacked out. I didn't want to black out this time. I held on. I brought down the blade on his shoulder. It scratched his armor and slashed down across his chest, and then struck the ground. The ground shattered, and spikes of energy came bursting out of it as though they were trees growing in fast-motion. Dirt went flying everywhere, into our faces, on our armor, everywhere. A cluster of spikes went up and hit Zedong on the chest, knocking him up into the air as though he had been given an uppercut by a giant. I decided I wasn't done. I leapt up just as he was in midair. He regained consciousness from the Aeolian Blade just in time to see me hovering over him. I brought down my blade again on him and knocked him right back down into the ground, his armor shattering the spikes that were still there. But before he went speeding down, a huge surge of silver wind surrounded me and then impacted his body like a massive knife! When he hit the ground he was sandwiched in between the wind and the spikes from before. The concussive wave actually knocked down some of the audience members! When we both landed, I did so on my feet. He was on his back in front of me. Behind him was a trench in the ground that had been carved out by the wind from my attack. It was so… freaking… cool! I am so freaking badass!

If only he saw it that way, because while I was now really really struggling to stay standing, he slowly made his way to his feet and changed the aura around his body. It was orange now. And then I saw him release yet another aura. It was yellow, and when it disappeared I saw some of the cuts and bruises on his face and hands heal almost instantly. I was shocked! How could he do that? I saw him smile and then build up more energy into his axe. He looked thrilled. "I had you all wrong. You're not bad… But compared to me you're still pathetic." I was so tired I couldn't answer. The pain between my legs hadn't gotten any better, and the cuts, burns, and bruises all over me were black, and some were bleeding profusely. All the adrenaline that was reducing the pain before was gone. I was throwing up, and I saw traces of blood on the ground in the vomit. My vision was getting hazy. I was about to fall forward from exhaustion when I saw him in front of me again. I saw the axe. I saw the fury burning all over it. I saw it impact my midriff. I felt the blinding pain surge through me. I heard ribs crack. I saw blood flying in midair. I felt myself go flying back. I felt myself blacking out. I knew I lost the duel, and possibly my life.

And yet… I was proud of myself.


	4. The Elders of the Forest

Chapter 4: The Elders of the Forest

"Ah! Holy sh*t! Oh…umm… uh…" That was me. Everything that hurt before still hurt. (And when I say everything, I really do mean everything). It was morning. I was in a bed. My armor had been removed, and a male was tending to me. Oh bullsh*t! I got up and tried to slap him into oblivion when I struck a shield made of feathers. I looked over it and realized it was a wing. This guy was a Winged Elf. "Relax, you're not my type." I looked over myself and saw that my farm clothing, which I wore under the armor, was covered in dried blood. Icky. "Don't be alarmed." The winged elf was reading a book that was titled _Advanced Guide to Human Physiology: Why Elves Can Heal Humans Too!_ That was a little odd but at least it wasn't a porno magazine. "All your wounds have been healed. You have nothing to worry about, though you will need some new clothing." Gee, lovely. I thanked him and was about to leave when he said, "The pain will still linger for some time. The acceleration of cellular mitosis caused by my spells repairs tissue, but strains the peripheral nervous system since it cannot heal nearly as quickly. Don't worry. The pain will be gone in a few hours. Try not to duel anymore for at least that long. You should also eat something soon, preferably something soft and easy to digest." He went on like this and we got to talking about my injuries and wow, he didn't even giggle at the mention of reproductive organs like I did. Anyways, I grabbed some extra garments that were lying around in the medical tent and changed while he was on Chapter 6, _Why Humans Can't Fly_.

I got out of the tent, where I was greeted by a bunch of female wizards. One of them was the one I had seen earlier that day. They all asked me if I was ok or not. I said I was fine and just wanted to get back to what was left of my farm, when the one with the green sword said, "You're not going to help us? I mean, no offense but your farm was pretty much wasted and we could use all the help we can get." I responded with, "Look, I can't even beat that kid. I'm not someone you want." Then she punched me in the shoulder and said "Don't be ridiculous. You've just never really fought before. I can tell you're really strong. You could have won if you have used Alter Marrow Physical at the beginning, and I'll bet you didn't even know about Aura of the Golden Bell and Diamond Sutra." It sounded like she was speaking gibberish, so I just rubbed my shoulder and said a small "Ouch". She said sorry and then went on about the different strategies I could have used. I got really bored and decided I was gonna try to fix my farm up and use that scythe as a shovel, when I realized I didn't have it! One of the wizards pointed out that Li Zedong was checking it out in the training field. I ran up to the field and saw him trying to use my blade. He couldn't. He was swinging it around but it kept slipping out of his hand. When it activated its ability and released flames, the flames burned his hands. It was like the flame scythe didn't want him to use it. That was gratifying. "Hey, give that back!" I ran up to him. And he threw the scythe at me. I caught it easily. "You can have it. But one day I'm gonna be able to wield it. And then I'm going to take it from you." He then left the training field. I decided I wasn't going to let him surpass me. I went to look for General Tzu.

There was a lot of stuff going in the General's tent. The Wraith were distributing their forces to all the major cities in Pangu. There were places I've never hear heard of like Silver Pool, Tusk Town, City of a Thousand Streams, and the Cro-Magnon Village. The world was a big place. I also noticed that the Tideborn were conspicuously absent from the map. I asked Tzu why. Here's what he said when he was done talking to the lieutenants. "The Tideborn only recently made themselves known to us, so we know very little about them. They don't seem to be in any immediate danger, but when we gather more intelligence about them we'll know for sure." He went back to working and then I pestered him again. "I want to become stronger. Please help me." He thought for a second and said "Try watching the other blademasters. Pay extra attention to the ones with pole arm weapons like you. Then try to copy what they do on the training field. You seem to have a natural gift for using that weapon. I heard you were very impressive in that duel." I blushed. I thought I was pretty pathetic, but that combo I performed was epic. I decided the General's advice was good, so I decided to try it.

I went back to the training field. There were a bunch of people training. They weren't all human either. Some were more winged elves like the medic who treated me earlier. Others looked like anthropomorphized lions and tigers and wolves and… pandas! I love pandas! They're so fluffy! Oh my gosh they are so cute! Or at least I thought they were until I saw one whack a fox right on the head. Oh my gosh that poor fox! That's so mean! I almost ran up to him when I saw the fox get right back up and whack him right back. Man he went flying like… a big flying panda! Boom! He crashed right into some crates. I heard him say, "Ok ok I give!" And the fox transformed into a girl. And she was so incredibly hot I was beginning to wish I was a lesbian. Her human figure was curved and voluptuous to say the least, although she retained her tail and fox ears though. I was thinking to myself how much I'd like to have her whack me into some crates when I noticed the archer hanging out with them. She was pretty hot too. "Man she didn't even have to use her sawfly. You have a lot of work to do. Tee hee." I guess they were all friends. The archer was a winged elf, and so was the nearby cleric. He had to be the tallest guy I have ever seen in my entire life. He had dark skin and a goatee and mustache. Screw the venomancer I want him! "Not to worry I'll fix you up!" I saw him point his staff at the barbarian, and the big ole panda, after being bathed in a silver light, got right up as though nothing happened. That cleric was so manly and tall and powerful and… and tall! Then I saw a little mousy guy come up to them. I guess he was a wizard. Nothing really special. He was short, had black messy hair and was all knobby-kneed. He looked like Harry Potter! "Hey hey! Check out what I can do! Check it out!" Everyone looked all excited and sh*t to watch this guy twirl his wand around like a cheerleader and then point it at what I guessed was a crash test dummy in the middle of the field. Everyone's eyes were on the dummy with anticipation. I was like "This had better be good." It was. The guy's body turned blue and a second later a big ass blue, translucent dragon came down from the sky and just came crashing down onto the dummy. What dummy? The dummy was gone. All that was left was a pool of water and some shreds of cloth. "So what do you think?" He smiled looking like he had discovered the secret to curing cancer, and his teeth were white. They were like, blinding. "That was great! Good job!" The venomancer rubbed his hair. Awe, that was sweet. These guys were all so cute! They all seemed pretty strong too.

"Hey! It's the girl that got vag smacked with a Drake's Ray! Holy sh*t that must have hurt!" I'm guessing the barbarian was referring to me. I shyly walked up to them. "Hi!" The little munchkin wizard walked up to me. "Will you be my girlfriend?" The venomancer giggled and went "Ha ha Wong." So I was kinda dumbstruck when the cleric came up to me. "Welcome! Would you like to train with us? My name is Marcus Bill Calloway. But you can call me Mark." Sounded like a foreign name. "I'm Wong! Wong Hung!" Upon closer inspection I realized this kid couldn't be more than 12 years old! Great, now a horny little kid had a crush on me, and if I break his heart he might get mad and crush me with a giant dragon. "Nice to meet you! I saw that duel! You kicked butt! I'm Joan! Joan Arch!" The archer. Gee, how imaginative. I wonder if the barbarian's name was Wolfgang Puck? "Jaraiya! I'm Jaraiya!" Hmm, is that foreign too? Some people can't tell. "Yofi. Charmed." The venomancer, and even her voice was hot! Still, my man-o-meter was definitely on the cleric. So after being bombarded with the new names, I was able to let out a "Ling. Ling Changpu."


	5. The Desire to Fly

Chapter 5: The Desire to Fly

"I see you've met our new allies!" It was General Tzu! "Uh, yah." I wasn't nervous. I just couldn't get over his beard. Tzu smiled. "They are ambassadors from all the different regions of Pangu. Jaraiya and Yofi are from The City of the Lost. Joan and Mark are from The City of the Plume. They arrived last night and are here to act on behalf of my command." Well, they did seem pretty strong. But that didn't explain… "What about Munchkin?" (Wong: "Shut up!") Tzu smiled again. "He's a prodigy from Etherblade, much like Li Zedong. Only his talent is in magic. His powers already exceed that of my first lieutenant!" Wong smiled and showed off those pearly white teeth again. "He's already well versed in all major magical skills. We hope he gains experience with our new allies." Well, that was interesting. I was about to ask him why they were drafting 12 year olds as soldiers when Jaraiya spoke up. "So is she coming with us too? We could use a blademaster, especially one as sexy as her." They all looked at me. Too much pressure! "Umm, I don't know. I mean Li Zedong is a prodigy too. Why not ask him?" Tzu smiled again. Damn him. "So you admit you're a prodigy." Double damn him. Err… "Hey wait a sec! I didn't, I mean, I- I- I… I'm just a farmer!"

The following wasn't my proudest moment. I basically started crying and venting random sh*t. "I'm nothing! I'm an orphan. My parents were drunkards. I own a tiny piece of land which isn't even good anymore thanks to those damn Wraith! I have no family; I don't like my friends who only like me because they feel sorry for me. I'm nothing. And I wish I had never found this thing!" I threw my flame scythe on the ground. Everyone looked at me sympathetically. I hated that look. I get it often enough. Mark was the first to say something. "You say you're nothing. That you have nothing… Why don't you let us give you something?" He went to the side of the training field and reached into a large crate. I hadn't really noticed it there before. What he pulled out stunned me.

They were weapons. And they were a lot like mine! They each had a green glow. The first he pulled out was a large red bow. It looked like a pair of eagle wings. He tossed it to Joan. Next were two large scepters, scarier looking than even the green glowing sword I saw at my first battle. They looked more like axes. He handed one to Wong and kept one for himself. He also took one that looked like a big key and handed it to Yofi. Finally, there came the dual axes. These axes were different because they didn't glow green. They had a gold aura instead. They had three edges each, with a green shaft for support. He handed these to Jaraiya. Finally he reached into a second crate (which I also didn't notice was there) and picked up these big pieces of armor. I recognized them! They were what I wore for that duel! It was nice to see them cleaned up. Now that I got to look at them again, they were pretty sexy. And they weren't THAT heavy. I could move in them. They were pretty comfortable. But then I wondered what the point of all this was… until I realized that the five people before me were all fully armored and robed, and Jaraiya wore armor like mine, except for males. Mark handed me armor. They all started to smile (including Wong, although he looked as clueless as I was and kept looking up at Yofi). "We're offering you a home. And besides, we need your help." Damn that Mark and his beautiful brown eyes. It was hard to say no.

I bent down and picked up my scythe, then I picked up the armor. With my hands full and my eyes a little teary, I walked without a word away from the group and into a nearby tent. The tent was vacant. It was for changing. There was a mirror inside. I stared at myself. I didn't look at myself very often. After all, I was a medium short, athletic but not very shapely, and had a plain face. That face, somewhat tanned. My legs, they were yellowish. I hated them. My hands were rough, though not that callused because I was careful not to overstrain them. I was neither overweight nor underweight. I was nothing special. There was no reason for me to look at myself. Ha ha, my chest was kind of flat. Funny, I didn't really think about that. I then decided to put on the armor, one piece at a time. First I took off my old clothes that I got from the medic. Then I put on the leggings. Then came the boots. Then I put on the torso. Then I put on the gauntlets. I put on the helmet, the accessories, and threw on the cape. Finally, I picked up my scythe. I looked at myself… A part of me said I looked cool. But the rest of me looked at my eyes, and at my body, and felt disgust. I held the scythe up. It was pretty and still felt warm. I could see some flames begin to billow from the blade. I swung the scythe around and saw the flames shimmer and dance. "Well, I guess you are fun to play with." I took another look at myself and noticed my face. My hair was jet back, and it was smooth. I guess I did take pretty decent care of it. My eyes looked sad. They always looked sad. They sparkled though. In fact, I could swear I heard a little voice say I was beautiful. I snapped my head side to side. Enough of that. I am who I am… Whatever. Anyways, the armor fit me well. And I guess I had nothing to go back to. I decided not to say good bye to my friends. I'd have some messenger do it. I stepped back out of the tent and went to meet my new friends.

"I'm in."


End file.
